<pre>Author/s : Jason Hunter, Bret McLaughlin, Hans Bergsten, et alPublisher : O'ReillyCategory :Design Patterns, UML, and RefactoringReview by : Ajith KallambellaRating : 8 horseshoes</pre> An appetizer that leaves you hungry for more.Patterns and best practices have been around for a long time. They solve problem domains not directly addressed by the language itself ie., repeatable solutions to family of application development issues -- be it architecture, deployment or testing. For a complex platform like J2EE, use of best practices can make or break a project. Just what the doctor ordered - Java Enterprise Best Practices is a collection nuggets of wisdoms. It is a compendium of idioms classified based on various enterprise Java areas written the most acclaimed authors in the field (Jason Hunter, Bret McLaughlin, Hans Bergsten et al). Ranging from most widely used EJBs to the latest additions such as JMX and JSTL, each chapter presents the reader with most widely accepted norms of using technologies such as - EJB, Servlets, JDBC, XML, RMI, JMX, Internationalization, JSP, JavaMail. Chapters on XML and RMI are the best of the lot. I was surprised to note the omission of JMS, given that its popularity when compared with other things such as JMX or JSTL. The last chapter on performance tuning lacks depth and reads more like hastily scribbled notes. Can best practices be argued? Absolutely! The first chapter of the book says just that. It is important to bear that in mind while you read through the chapters. While a seasoned J2EE developer idioms may find a few things trivial, it is quite a good reference to keep handy if you are developing real-life applications.